Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

kingsley.sh

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 294 posts

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#221

Post by yunohn »

wonderwonder wrote: post #200
yunohn wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In the end, the poor will benefit greatly, the rich will carry on as usual, and people in the middle will get squeezed to death. While I disagree with nearly all of your post, I can find reason in the closing statement. I feel like this logic often evades the people asking for higher taxes to support their causes. It’s always the middle class that ends up paying for it. It creates a lot of resentment which is exact…

This is a systematic issue though, not an intent problem. Why do the middle class end up paying for it while the rich which own 40% of the assets don't? Due to lobbying and constantly electing politicians that are the same over and over again. The top 10% in the US own 70% of the assets. Just make the rich pay their taxes and the situation is resolved but we just keep gouging the middle class. Middle class should est…

> This is a systematic issue though, not an intent problem.

It’s definitely systemic/systematic, but it’s also intent?

The tax system is intentionally designed by the ruling/wealth classes to extract the working classes money. Each individual tax may not have this explicit intent, but the sheer number of loopholes and bypasses are omnipresent.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#222

Post by gruez »

EvRev wrote: post #214
gruez wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can't get health insurance on healthcare.gov?

There are two options after losing your job. Cobra or healthcare.gov. Cobra will allow you to keep your current plan, for my family that would have been ~$800 per month. Healthcare.gov rates are based on your income, or what it was, or what you expect it to be. Which for me was ~$700. So there is no way to get affordable insurance to cover the gap in employment in a way that preserves cash reserves.

>So there is no way to get affordable insurance to cover the gap in employment in a way that preserves cash reserves.

I fail to see how it's any different than "there is no way to get affordable housing/food to cover the gap in employment in a way that preserves cash reserves". I suppose you could argue that with housing/food your costs stay the same regardless of your employment status, but from a finance perspective it's still the same. There's no difference between losing a $6000/month paycheck and losing a $5500/month paycheck and $500/month in insurance subsidies.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#223

Post by lucretian »

selfmodruntime wrote: post #94

I feel a lot of empathy for OP, but there are some choices I find very difficult to understand. > our child, with life-saving intervention, surgeries, and therapy, could, and should live a happy, healthy, fulfilled life, at least until adulthood Sorry, but I can't grasp why you would condemn a 24 weeks old fetus to a life of a) possibly not suffering and b) only living until you're 20 or so years old, when you have t…

> condemn a 24 weeks old fetus

diagnosed at 21 weeks, in fact. important because the difference between 21 and 24 weeks crosses the boundary of legality in many states. furthermore, right wing activists are constantly agitating to lower the threshold even further. had that been the case here, this family would have discovered the congenital defect at the anatomy scan only afterwards.

> listened to their medical professionals

it's highly unlikely that their care team would have actively recommended termination. standard is to explain the diagnosis, the prognosis, and the options to continue the pregnancy or terminate. then leave it to the family to decide.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#224

Post by tomwojcik »

carschno wrote: post #121
hungryforcodes wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's insane. At most it would have cost just a few thousand in many countries in Asia with comparable medical competencies. So is there a new strategy of going to non-western countries to deliver babies and have expensive surgeries? Of course I don't need to mention that in Canada and most countries in Europe this wouldn't have even been an issue. That would be pedantic. /s

Not entirely true any more, unfortunately. Many (Western) Europeans go to countries like Poland, Hungary, Turkey for treatments that are typically not (fully) covered by health insurances, like manydental or laser eye surgery. There are private clinics specialized on Western European patient with staff speaking fluent English, German etc.

Pole here. Recently my friend gave birth at 27 weeks to two boys, 700g (1.5 pound) each. Premature newborns spent over 3 months in the hospital (pediatric ICU), were unable to breathe by themselves. Parents got vaccinated in January against corona and the official "early birds" vaccination process for the population started about 3 months later (for public service). Everything was free of charge. I can't imagine having to pay for a visit in the hospital.

EDIT: Also, I know a guy from Denmark who flies to Poland just to fix his teeth.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#225

Post by 100011_100001 »

astura wrote: post #30
100011_100001 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of insurance companies will have a 10-20% coinsurance for hospital visits, not a traditional co-pay like you went to a specialist. That 10-20% goes against the deductible, so depending on the bill you might not even pay the full 10% because it hits your deductible max. Edit: I was informed that it's not 10% co-pay but coinsurance. So I updated my post to reflect that.

That kind of cost sharing is called coinsurance, not copay. Most policies have deductibles, coinsurance, and copays as types of cost sharing. Coinsurance you pay is also against the amount that insurance pays (negotiated rate)

Thanks for the clarification on coinsurance.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#226

Post by xtracto »

cmrdporcupine wrote: post #29
_huayra_ wrote: post #2

I don't understand how people can be so anti-universal healthcare in the US. When you have an $8k deductible, your insurance is basically a gift to the CEO's yacht fund.

There are many problems with our Canadian system, it's certainly not perfect. And single payer is not the only way to approach this problem. But I'm overall happy with its compromises in our system. Like any economic resource, it's rationed. But it's rationed, generally, on the basis of need. And that "from each according to their abilities to each according to their needs" philosophy may be the ideological curse on…

I dont know if the Canadian, the British or even the German model are the best. But what is clear to me is that for profit insurance is a system that doesn't make sense. There should be a way to align the interests of both the organisation providing the service as and the individual using/paying for it. In the American model these two are completely opposite, which doesn't make sense in an inelastic market.

Maybe if that system had VERY strong economic regulations (like, the government would set prices for everything and let private carers compete in "value added".)

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#227

Post by wonderwonder »

yunohn wrote: post #221
wonderwonder wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a systematic issue though, not an intent problem. Why do the middle class end up paying for it while the rich which own 40% of the assets don't? Due to lobbying and constantly electing politicians that are the same over and over again. The top 10% in the US own 70% of the assets. Just make the rich pay their taxes and the situation is resolved but we just keep gouging the middle class. Middle class should est…

> This is a systematic issue though, not an intent problem. It’s definitely systemic/systematic, but it’s also intent? The tax system is intentionally designed by the ruling/wealth classes to extract the working classes money. Each individual tax may not have this explicit intent, but the sheer number of loopholes and bypasses are omnipresent.

Sorry, yes, meant its not the intent of the middle class. Its absolutely the intent of the rich, large corporations and their lobbyists.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#228

Post by xtracto »

gruez wrote: post #216
xtracto wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This American fixation with the word "free" always makes me chuckle. Aa when a bus driver in Las Vegas got angry when I asked them if thag was the "free" bus, and he angrily replied "it's not free, its complimentary " .

Is this a copy pasta? I see this exact story repeated in several sites/comment threads.

Maybe you saw it on a previous story where I shared it as well? If you look through my comments you'll find it. Albeit a bit more expanded I think. Sorry if this bothered you.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#229

Post by refurb »

inglor wrote: post #100
rakmos wrote: post #52

This hits home for me.. my son (now 4 years old) was born very premature at 29 weeks and some change. He spent 7 weeks and 4 days in the NICU. The total hospital bill that was charged to insurance (before settling it between themselves) was roughly 960_000$. If you include the additional services and whatnot in the few months following being discharged from the hospital he was a million dollar baby. Complete insanity…

In Israel we have public healthcare. I was born at week 32 and spent about 6 weeks in the NICU - everything was free. It's not always great and I do pay for private insurance in case I need something urgent - but everything emergency is absolutely covered. I believe it's this state in most developed places that are not the US?

It was free to you, but not the system. NICU is very expensive even outside the US, you’re talking several thousand a day. So 6 weeks could run $100,000+ easily.

Re: The cost of two weeks in an pediatric/infant ICU

#230

Post by mabub24 »

gruez wrote: post #129
Rucadi wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are countries with private healthcare that works (And IS better than public healthcare). The problem is specific to USA.

>There are countries with private healthcare that works list them?

Switzerland has a system that basically works like a beefed up and less hogtied ACA. It's a very heavily regulated private market that would likely not be considered ideal for America, though some have suggested it as an option.
Post reply on HN